Monday, July 30, 2012

Weekly Preview Update

We're still ironing out the wrinkles here at SpecFicPick and figuring out what works and what doesn't. Based on page views, it seems that the Weekly Previews on Mondays are the one thing that isn't working. This makes sense, of course; the Weekly Previews don't provide readers with much interesting material. So we've decided to drop them, freeing up Mondays for more-engaging material.

Fortunately, what is working is everything else! I've gotten positive feedback and lots of views on the interviews and the Book Features are getting a decent number of hits, considering how young this endeavor is. The first installment of Michael K. Rose Presents: Classic Science Fiction has also been a big draw. The second installment is coming soon and will feature Philip K. Dick's "Beyond Lies the Wub." As always, we're open to any suggestion on how we can improve SpecFicPick. Feel free to leave comments here or on any post/page, where appropriate.

Best,
Michael K. Rose

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Book Feature: Flight of the Stone by C.H. Thompson

Flight of the Stone is a fantasy tale full of drama, adventure and humour. A desperate Elliot throws a stone to frighten off his pursuers. His actions ignite an exciting chain of events. Witnessing far more than they bargained for, Elliot’s teenage friends Miles and Abbi become drawn into a parallel world riddled with the unexpected. As they gradually unlock the hidden secrets of leylines, the three youngsters learn how to travel vast distances in seconds, are terrorised by Fuddles, and are held captive by the menacing Larc while guided by their virtual mentor, Dylan. In this other world they discover as much about themselves as well as the world around them. So intense is their journey together they become far more emotionally attached than they ever thought likely.

Though these characters are imaginary the places are very real. Much of the story is set around the many historical landmarks in Christchurch, England, a place where the past lives alongside the present and the mythical becomes real. In many ways, the story reflects how the division between fantasy and reality is narrowing, particularly through technological advances. Just look at the iPhone; 30 years ago such a device would have been pure fantasy, more Star Trek than reality. The burning question throughout Flight of the Stone is "How much of it really is fantasy?"

“...an intriguing mix of medieval swords and mobile phones is accompanied by great wordplay....truly delightful.” - Gather Books Essential

Available at:

Please visit this page for more information.

Chris H Thompson was born in Rochdale, Manchester and now lives in Christchurch, Dorset, UK. He currently teaches at Twynham School in Christchurch, England. His debut novel Flight of the Stone was inspired as much by the area he lives as the people in it. It's success has inspired him to devote much of his free time to writing the sequel!

You can visit his blog or connect with him via Facebook and Twitter.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Book Feature: How to Disappear Completely
by Annika Howells

In Greenwood, fitting in is a matter of life and death.

Cynical seventeen-year-old Lycia wakes up in the dark, twisted town of Greenwood, unable to remember how she got there. Aside from her mother, who is trapped in a coma-like sleep, Greenwood's only other inhabitants are the hostile and eerily identical students who attend the school.

Lycia befriends the school outcasts; the eccentric Aster and his shy companion, Meg. Together they discover a trapdoor into a bizarre, dream-like underworld called Bassisha. When the violence in Greenwood escalates to deadly new heights, Bassisha seems like their only hope of freedom. But Bassisha has dangers of its own.

As madness sets in and reality crumbles, Lycia, Aster and Meg must find a way to escape from a nightmare of their own creation.

Available at:

Please visit this link for more information.

Annika Howells began writing at the age of four, when she would scribble across the pages of blank notebooks. Her work improved immeasurably once she actually mastered the alphabet. She began writing her first novel, How to Disappear Completely, when she was 16. She subsequently graduated from school, dropped out of university, fell in love and lost her mind. She lives in Brisbane, Australia.

You can connect with her via her website, Facebook or Twitter.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Book Feature: Mad Science Institute
by Sechin Tower

Sophia "Soap" Lazarcheck is a girl genius with a knack for making robots-and for making robots explode. After her talents earn her admission into a secretive university institute, she is swiftly drawn into a conspiracy more than a century in the making. Meanwhile and without her knowledge, her cousin Dean wages a two-fisted war of vengeance against a villainous genius and his unwashed minions.

Separately, the cousins must pit themselves against murderous thugs, experimental weaponry, lizard monsters, and a nefarious doomsday device. When their paths finally meet up, they will need to risk everything to prevent a mysterious technology from bringing civilization to a sudden and very messy end.


"I found myself unable to put down the Kindle... curse you, Sechin Tower!" - Dwayne Russell

Available at:

Please visit the author's website for more information.

Sechin Tower is a writer, game designer, and teacher. He began work with Exile Game Studio in 2006 and eventually became the chief contributor to the award-winning supplements for the Hollow Earth Expedition RPG. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife and cat. In his spare time, he prepares for the zombie apocalypse by running obstacle courses and practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

You can connect with him via his website, Facebook or Twitter.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Book Feature: We Can Be Heroes
by Scott Fitzgerald Gray


Death and Friendship. Love and Gaming. Mind and Machine. The Meaning of Life. High School Graduation. The End of the World. That Kind of Stuff.

I try to focus. I need to bring the previous days into some sort of relief that will let me sum things up.

“Me and some friends of mine, we got caught up in something. We thought we were beta-playing a game. An online tactical simulation, but the game turned out to be… you know what, that doesn’t matter. But none of it was our fault, and now we have something this guy Lincoln wants. A piece of tech. I want to give it back to him, but I can’t trust him to leave things alone after that.”

“What kind of tech?”

“A Soviet-era mobile weapons platform, whose heuristic on-board systems developed advanced artificial intelligence capability while it sat forgotten in a bunker in Smolensk.” Saying it sounds just about as ridiculous as I expect it to.

“I didn’t think you wrote fiction.” Connor tries and fails to laugh. It’s like he has some sort of esophageal deformity that routes all intent to guffaw straight from his lungs to his nose.

“Not fiction. This is the truth…”


"What Gray has done with this book is nothing short of astounding." - Colin McComb, author of Oathbreaker

Available at:

Please visit this page for more information.

Scott Fitzgerald Gray is a specially constructed biogenetic simulacrum built around an array of experimental consciousness-sharing techniques -- a product of the finest minds of Canadian science until the grant money ran out. Accidentally set loose during an unauthorized midnight rave at the lab, the S.F. Gray entity is currently at large amongst an unsuspecting populace, where his work as an author, screenwriter, editor, RPG designer, and story editor for feature film keeps him off the streets.

More info on Scott and his work (some of it even occasionally truthful) can be found by reading between the lines at insaneangel.com. You can also connect with him via Facebook or Twitter. Also be sure to check out our interview with Mr. Gray.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Interview: Scott Fitzgerald Gray

Our interview this week is with Scott Fitzgerald Gray, who is, in his words, "...a specially constructed biogenetic simulacrum built around an array of experimental consciousness-sharing techniques—a product of the finest minds of Canadian science until the grant money ran out." That may or may not be true (although I suspect the former), but I do know that he also happens to be the author of the novel We Can Be Heroes, which will be tomorrow's Book Feature. Be sure to check it out!

Michael K. Rose: What role do you believe speculative fiction plays in society?

Scott Fitzgerald Gray: Without trying to sound like a total dweeb, I think speculative fiction is the place where philosophy comes alive in the modern world. The preferred use of “speculative fiction” as opposed to “science fiction” kind of sums up my take on the genre, which at its best is about wrapping the live wires of raw ideas in the protective sheath of narrative so that we can grab onto them without killing ourselves. Outside of a college philosophy department, I think it’s pretty rare for a group of people to come together to talk about Cartesian metaphysics just for fun—but it’s pretty damn easy to get into a lively debate about the ending of Inception. At its best, speculative fiction inspires not just a reaction to the work (which I think is a quality of all great literature) but an active questioning of the work and the principles it’s built on.

MKR: Why do you write in this genre?

SFG: Because I love that interface between idea and emotion, event and character, that speculative fiction does so well. There are plenty of good examples of speculative fiction that are more about the ideas than the characters (including a lot of the golden age science-fiction, as entertaining and enjoyable as it is to read). But to my mind, the greatest speculative fiction walks a razor-thin line between exposing and exploring the wonders of the fictional world and peeling back the inner workings of the characters who live in that world. That dedication to forging real character story alongside world-building and the explorations of technology and sociology that are SF’s most common touchstones is the great challenge of speculative fiction, and I’m driven to throw myself at that challenge. I’m not entirely sure I’ve been successful at meeting it yet, but I’m happy to still be working at it. :-)

MKR: How did you come up with the idea for We Can Be Heroes?

SFG: There are kind of two answers to that question, but on the side of the character story, We Can Be Heroes grew out of a desire to write a novel that would touch on some of my own experiences as a geek and a gamer and a kind of awkward intellectual in high school. I wanted to address the importance for me of the friendships I forged in my late adolescence and how those friendships helped me figure out my life, even as I made use of the actual set-pieces of that life in the fiction. As such, the story is built around my impressionistic sense of the small town I grew up in, my high school, my friends (or specifically, gestalt characters inspired by my friends) and the important philosophical lessons that were driven into me at that age.

On the more metafictional other side of the story, the inspiration for the archplot actually comes from one of the endless roleplaying game sessions that my friends and I used to engage in as we were all figuring our lives out in high school. (No major spoilers, hopefully, but that archplot concerns the group of young friends ending up on the wrong side of a private paramilitary group with some stolen technology.) For me as a writer, the story thus incorporated a number of different levels of inspiration from my own life, and it was a lot of fun welding them together into a cohesive whole.

MKR: What was your biggest challenge in writing it?

SFG: Trying to tell myself that I could shape a story incorporating so many personal touchstones into something universal. And at the risk of trying to make myself sound like a person of any skill or talent, I think this is really the essential challenge of all speculative fiction and fantasy. On some level, no matter what their inspiration, starting point, or allegorical weight, the worlds of speculative fiction all spring fully formed from the minds of their creators. The problem is that all our amazing ideas are inherently interesting to us because we’re the ones who came up with them—but it takes serious literary chops to find the points of universal interest and drama that can make the personally meaningful into the universally meaningful.

MKR: What are you working on now?

SFG: “Working” always seems like a relative term, but most of my creative energy right now is going into two fantasy novels in progress, both extensions of earlier works. Three Coins for Confession is the overdue second part of the trilogy that started with last year’s Clearwater Dawn, while The Chaos Gates is the first book in a dark epic-fantasy trilogy that builds on the backstory, characters, and magic introduced in the anthology A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales.

I’m also in the process of prepping for publication a young-adult speculative fiction series about a young girl from the Canadian hinterland who discovers that she’s the heir to ultimate cosmic power and the unwitting central figure in an interstellar civil war. Sidnye (Queen of the Universe) is one of the few so-called “trunk novels” in my canon, as it was written a few years ago, had lots of people liking it, and ultimately could find no publisher with enough imagination to run with it. I’m hoping to do a polish on it in the fall (because no book is ever good enough that it can’t handle one more pass) for release shortly thereafter.

MKR: Thank you for the interview! Interested readers can find out more about Scott at his website.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Weekly Preview (July 23-29)

This week, we have an interview with Scott Fitzgerald Gray, author of We Can Be Heroes, Thursday's Book Feature. Over the weekend we have features of Sechin Tower's Mad Science Institute, How to Disappear Completely by Annika Howells and Flight of the Stone by C.H. Thompson.

Be sure to visit back often!








Image Source: Open Old Book by Jiri Hodan

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Book Feature: The Caline Conspiracy by M.H. Mead

Calines are the perfect pets. Smarter than border collies, playful as otters, elegant as cats, calines have been genetically engineered to be everything a pet owner could want.

And one of them might be a killer.

The world is shocked when a famed geneticist is murdered, and his own pet caline, Madeline, is the prime suspect. Is this an isolated case, a flaw in the calines’ design, or something more? The widow doesn’t believe her darling could kill, and hires PI Aidra Scott to prove Madeline’s innocence.

Aidra wants nothing to do with animals—genetically engineered perfection or not. Losing her beloved Doberman was so painful that she’s sworn off pet ownership forever. But the more she investigates, the more Aidra becomes convinced an innocent animal is being framed, and murder is only the beginning of the conspiracy.

“It’s smart and fun and was a great read from beginning to end.” The Unbound Underground

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

For more information, please visit http://www.yangandcampion.com

M.H. Mead is the shared pen name of Margaret Yang and Harry R. Campion. They have been friends and co-authors for many years and have written numerous short stories and two novels. Margaret speaks Chinese, hates waiting in lines, and is saving up for a unicorn. Either that or a flying car. Harry loves the Detroit Tigers, can deep fry any food, and has more books than shelves to put them on. The authors live in Michigan, where they are hard at work on their next novel.

To connect with M.H. Mead, please visit their blog and Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Book Feature: Since Tomorrow by Morgan Nyberg


An old man called Frost rides a workhorse through the night, across mudslides, past stores abandoned for decades, past the rotted corpses of automobiles invisible under mounds of blackberry. Rain courses from his rabbit skin poncho. He carries a sword and a spear. He knows where to find the murderer. He will face him alone.

The city of Vancouver on the West Coast of Canada has been transformed by climate change, pandemic, economic collapse and earthquake into "Town", a squalid, lawless place inhabited the desperate, the diseased and the dying. Taking advantage of this state of affairs is the formidable Langley, who grows poppies to produce "skag", a crude form of opium. Langley has amassed enough power to control a small private army. Now he is determined to acquire Frost's farm for himself. Recklessly opposing Langley is Frost's fearless but impulsive granddaughter, Noor.

Like Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker or Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Since Tomorrow demonstrates that there is room in the post-apocalyptic genre for exceptional writing. Morgan Nyberg tells nothing - he shows everything. In clear, sensuous prose free of commentary or explanation - prose as addictive as Langley's skag - he leads the reader toward that climactic night with Frost on his horse, and farther, to the threshold of a new, perhaps happier, era.

“SINCE TOMORROW is the best post-apocalyptic novel I've read since Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD.” - Amazon Review

Available at:

For more information, please visit this page.

Morgan Nyberg’s first book, The Crazy Horse Suite, a verse play, was performed on the stage in New York and was broadcast on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio. His memoir, Mark, won the CBC Literary Competition. His first venture into book-length fiction, a children's novel, Galahad Schwartz and the Cockroach Army, won Canada's prestigious Governor General's Award for Literature in 1987. Since then he has added a further children's novel, Bad Day in Gladland, and three novels for adults, El Dorado Shuffle, Mr. Millennium, and Since Tomorrow. He currently lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.

You can connect with Morgan Nyberg at his blog, Facebook or Twitter.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Book Feature: Century of Sand by Christopher Ruz

Richard and Ana are on the run.

As a young soldier, Richard led a rebellion that installed the King's sociopathic Magician as the new regent. Now, after forty years of watching his comrades vanish into the dungeons of Stonebridge Castle, Richard has fled the kingdom with his mute daughter in tow, escaping into the desert wastes where magic still boils in the clouds and demons walk the dunes inside the bodies of men.

The Magician isn't far behind, and he's brought a pet: the Culling, an undead, stitched-together tracking dog with a taste for blood. But Richard has his own weapon, stolen from the Magician himself: the calcified heart of a demon, which he hopes to trade back to its original owner in exchange for sanctuary. What he doesn't know is that his daughter, Ana, is far more valuable than the stone. She was the last piece in the Magician's grand weapon, and he'll tear the desert in half to get her back...

Century of Sand is a 120,000 word novel, and the first book in an epic fantasy trilogy that follows Richard and Ana as they chase down legends and battle to stay one step ahead of the Magician. Murderous warlords, a priest with a dark past, and creatures torn from Richard's nightmares lie between him and salvation.

"This isn't your usual sword-and-sorcery fare. This writer is one to keep an eye on... What Christopher Ruz has done with Century of Sand is genuinely brilliant." - Amazon Review

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK


Christopher "Ruz" Hayes-Kossmann was born in Hong Kong, raised in Vienna, and is now settled in Melbourne, Australia. Although he graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor of Industrial Design, his first love has always been writing. He's been published by Weaponizer, Labyrinth Inhabitant's Magazine and Birdville Magazine, and has won both the first Ergofiction Search Term Challenge and the first Birdville Impromptu Award. He is currently working on his seventh novel.

You can visit him on his website, Facebook or Twitter.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Book Feature: Sketches from the Spanish Mustang
by Benjamin X. Wretlind

There are dreams of fire, blood, twisted metal and faint, dying cries carried on the wind.
The Artist has lost far too much in such a short period of time. Her mind is flooded with uncertainty, self-reflection holds no absolution, and she knows her mirror is too difficult to scrutinize. Broken, she hopes to find peace with her one true gift. With a pencil, a sketchbook and a keen eye for the details of the soul, her lines and smudges, curves and tone reveal the stories behind her subjects.

Life emerges on the page--vengeance, salvation, love and death. Within a town forgotten, the Artist's subjects fight for survival, only to be saved in the sketches of a woman with a gift . . . and a curse.

Remembering is penance.

"With a skill on par with any of the great American novelists, Mr. Wretlind has penned a tale of such emotional and literary depth that it will haunt the reader long after the last page is turned. He has penned a tale filled with rage, sorrow, loss and just a little bit of hope. He has penned a tale that can only be described as a masterpiece." - Amazon Review

Available at:

Please visit this page for more information.

Benjamin X. Wretlind, the author of Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors and Sketches from the Spanish Mustang, has been called "a Pulitzer-caliber writer" with "a unique American voice." Aside from novels, he has been published in many magazines throughout the past 10 years.

You can connect with Benjamin X. Wretlind at his website or via Facebook and Twitter. Also be sure to read our interview with him.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Interview: Benjamin X. Wretlind

Today's interview is with Benjamin X. Wretlind, author of the chilling Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors and the brand new Sketches from the Spanish Mustang, which will be tomorrow's Book Feature.

Michael K. Rose: What role do you believe speculative fiction plays in society? 

Benjamin X. Wretlind: As kids, we were fascinated by the supernatural, especially as we investigated the world around us. We've all grown up since, but many of us have never grown out of our desire to know more. It's a part of who we are. Think of the strong beliefs which existed in the time of William Shakespeare. What of the beliefs that existed around the time of Nathaniel Hawthorne? Charles Dickens? Do you think, just because we listen to music on iPhones, drive hybrid cars or make our own donuts at home these days, that we no longer believe in the supernatural, the paranormal, the speculative?

In a poll conducted by Gallup in 2010, 71% of Americans confess to having had a paranormal experience of some sort. While only 34% believe in the existence of ghosts, 65% believe Ouija boards are dangerous, 41% believe in extrasensory perception and 37% believe that houses can be haunted. Let me put that in perspective: if there are roughly 300 million people in the United States, about 213 million people confess to having had a paranormal experience of some sort.

Hmmm...

I don't like polls myself, but what I do find interesting is that people generally want to believe there might be more out there. It's this desire to want more which drives people to look for more in movies, television, books. How many want to believe in sparkly vampires? How many want to think of some distopian future? How many people really think Harry Potter is real?

MKR: Why do you write in this genre?

BXW: It's simple, really: I want to believe. That sounds a little X-Files-ish, but I've carried that desire to believe in what's speculative through my entire life.

MKR: How did you come up with the idea for Sketches from the Spanish Mustang?

BXW: The idea for Sketches came from my fiancee, Jesse Lee. We were walking down the streets of Cripple Creek one October day, people-watching. Out of the blue she said, "Look at all the casino people." From that phrase, we started to discuss a "neat idea:" sketch a variety of people from the town and put them all together in one story, and although I started with that idea, it quickly morphed into something a little more: a look at strangers from a different perspective.

MKR: What was your biggest challenge in writing it?

BXW: In one word: time.

MKR: What are you working on now?

BXW: First up will be a rewrite of the first novel I ever wrote, a magical realism piece that I feel deserves a bit of an epic feel to it. A Difficult Mirror should be ready to go in the winter, and whether that means December or February, I can't say just yet. The novel is also, I should say, the first of three.

As I rewrite and rework A Difficult Mirror, I'm also going to be writing a literary thriller, currently titled Driving the Spike. As I have it plotted out, the novel follows the lives of three brothers who each go their separate paths but come back together in a marriage of opposing forces for a common cause. It's a novel that's spent a long time in that "thinking" part of my brain. I'm not a political person, though, so don't think this is really going to be partisan or petty.

It's going to be . . . awesome, slightly dystopian, and probably pretty long. Driving the Spike will make you think, and that's what I love to do.

It will also have a ghost. :)

MKR: Thank you for your time, Ben!

Readers can connect with Benjamin X. Wretlind at his website and via Facebook and Twitter. And be sure to come back tomorrow for our feature of Sketches from the Spanish Mustang.


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Michael K. Rose Presents: Classic Science Fiction
#1 "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum

Introduction

I would like to welcome you to the first installment of Michael K. Rose Presents: Classic Science Fiction. This series of articles originated on my personal blog with a discussion of Daniel Keyes's "Flowers for Algernon," one of my all-time favorite science fiction short stories. I went on to write three more "Classic Science Fiction" posts on my blog before starting SpecFicPick. After mulling over exactly what I wanted this site to be about, I decided that in addition to showcasing current speculative fiction authors, I would also like it to be about speculative fiction in general. To that end, I opened up the site for article submissions. Then I remembered my "Classic Science Fiction" series, sadly neglected. I decided I would re-launch the series on SpecFicPick, but with one important difference: I only wanted to write about stories that are now in the public domain and, as such, are available for free on Project Gutenberg or through Amazon. (Links will be provided at the beginning of each article so you can read it before reading my commentary.) This will limit my selection, of course, but I wanted to do this because I feel that a lot of readers today aren't familiar with the distant roots of the genre; I wanted to be sure that in addition to reading my articles on these stories, readers have a chance to read the stories themselves. So without further ado, I'd like to begin the series with a true visionary classic of science fiction: Stanley G. Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey."

Stanley G. Weinbaum
"A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum
(Free at Project Gutenberg or Amazon)

Originally published in the July 1934 issue of Wonder Stories, "A Martian Odyssey" was a highly influential work on the then-burgeoning genre. Isaac Asimov considered it to be a work that changed the way all subsequent stories in the genre were written, and the Science Fiction Writers of America (now known as SFWA) chose it to lead off the fantastic anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964, which I recommend highly.

So what made "A Martian Odyssey" so remarkable? The story is a fairly straight-forward adventure tale: an astronaut named Dick Jarvis, part of the first manned expedition to Mars, crashes his auxiliary craft and must travel by foot to return to his comrades. A generation earlier, a story like this would have been set in Africa or India. However, aside from the dated technology and language, this story holds up so well because of the unique way in which Weinbaum created his alien landscape. His aliens were, simply put, incredibly alien. We are introduced to a highly intelligent ostrich-like creature named Tweel, a sinister black tentacle monster with psychic powers, a curious silicon-based creature that excretes blocks of silica and builds pyramids of the silica blocks around itself, and barrel-shaped automaton-like creatures that seems only to exist to feed material into a machine at the core of a tunnel network beneath their "city."

These aliens are fanciful enough, but Weinbaum goes a step further and establishes the fact that not only is their morphology completely alien, but even the way they think is different from the thought patterns of humans. Tweel, Jarvis's companion during his journey, seems to possess a language in which words for different objects--rocks, for example--change from moment to moment. The language, therefore, is situational as opposed to being based on the general commonality between objects. Tweel, Jarvis finds, takes great delight in the fact that for Jarvis, a "rock" is always a "rock."

Even the plant life of Weinbaum's Mars is extraordinary. Jarvis notes a bed of grass that parts as he walks through it. Picking up one of the "blades," he finds that each blade possesses two tiny legs.

Weinbaum wrote a sequel to this story called "Valley of Dreams," but unfortunately he died within 18 months of "A Martian Odyssey's" publication, cutting short the life of a man who, despite his already considerable contribution to science fiction, could have become a giant in the genre. But it is a testament to his imagination and accessible style of story-telling that through a single short story, he made such an impact on all science fiction writers who were to follow.

You can download a free copy of "A Martian Odyssey" from Project Gutenberg or Amazon.

Original Classic Science Fiction image: C.E. Space Scene 1 by Gale Titus
Image of Stanley G. Weinbaum courtesy of Wikipedia

Monday, July 16, 2012

Weekly Preview (July 16-22)

We have a great week coming up on SpecFicPick. Check it out:

Tuesday - Michael K. Rose Presents: Classic Science Fiction. The first in what I hope to be a long-running series.
Wednesday - An interview with the brilliant and talented Benjamin X. Wretlind!
Thursday - Book Feature: Sketches from the Spanish Mustang by Benjamin X. Wretlind
Friday - Book Feature: Century of Sand by Christopher Ruz
Saturday - Book Feature: Since Tomorrow by Morgan Nyberg
Sunday - Book Feature: The Caline Conspiracy by M.H. Mead

Be sure to follow SpecFicPick on Twitter and like us on Facebook so you don't miss a thing!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Book Feature: Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

THEY KILLED THE KING. THEY PINNED IT ON TWO MEN. THEY CHOSE POORLY.

There's no ancient evil to defeat or orphan destined for greatness, just unlikely heroes and classic adventure. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, are two enterprising thieves who end up running for their lives when they're framed for the king’s murder. Trapped in a conspiracy that goes beyond the overthrow of a tiny kingdom, their only hope is unraveling an ancient mystery before it's too late.

The six books of The Riyria Revelations were self-published to great success before being re-released by Orbit (fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group) as three, two-novel omnibus volumes: Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, and Heir of Novron. Each book is a self-contained episode with its own conflict and resolution, yet framed within a larger overarching story. All books were written before the first was released, providing for interwoven plot threads and plenty of twists and turns. Designed to start out simply, each book builds on the previous installment increasing the stakes until the dramatic epic conclusion.

“Filled with adventure and clever dialog and featuring a pair of not-quite-heroes whose loyalties to each other provide them with their greatest strength, this epic fantasy showcases the arrival of a master storyteller.” – Library Journal Fantasy Debut of the Month Sep 2011.

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

Please visit this page for more information.

Michael J. Sullivan wrote his first full-length novel when just ten. In adulthood he spent ten years and produced twelve novels but found no publishing traction. Finally, he gave up altogether, vowing never to write creatively again.

Never turned out to be too long and his hiatus ended a decade later, but only on the condition that he wouldn’t seek publication. Instead he wrote books that he wanted to read, and those that would appeal to his then thirteen-year-old daughter who was struggling with reading due to dyslexia. Ironically these books became The Riyria Revelations, his first published works.

You can connect with Michael at his blog, Facebook or Twitter.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Book Feature: Girl in the Glass by Zoe Brooks

“I will have to say it: 'I am Anya and I am nothing'. I will look down at the floor as I say it, so that I don't see the smile on my aunt's face, so she won't see the defiance in my eyes. She will get her victory. She always wins these battles. I know it, she knows it. But one day, one day she will not.”

In this Cinderella story for adults, there is no fairy godmother and no handsome prince, just a girl of spirit and her strange companion.

Orphaned at the age of 10 in circumstances that she refuses to explain, Anya grows up trapped in the house of her abusive aunt where she and Eva, her Shadow, are treated as slaves. As her aunt tries to break her and the punishments become increasingly life-threatening, Anya struggles to find affection and self-esteem. When the inevitable showdown arrives, where will Anya find the strength to survive and escape? And if she does escape, what then? An arduous walk across an unforgiving desert to a city where an even worse danger lies.

Girl in the Glass is the first in the magic realism trilogy Shadows.

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

For more information, please see this page.

Zoe Brooks is a British writer and poet who spends half her life in a partly-restored old farmhouse in the Czech Republic, where she writes all her novels and poetry. Zoe aims to write popular books, which have complex characters and themes that get under the reader's skin.

You can connect with Zoe at her blog and via Facebook and Twitter.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Book Feature: Vincent Hobbes Presents: The Endlands (Volume 1)

Do you believe in a place outside human knowledge-a place where myth and legend collide-where the unthinkable is the mundane?

There is a thin veil between reality and make believe. When you take a moment, and push the veil aside, perhaps you will see this place, a place not of the imagination. Everything you see here is real.

Nothing is what it seems-noises are not what you think. Nothing is off limits-no place is safe.

You might find yourself lost in the past or trapped in the future-amidst vampires and werewolves-or in a most peculiar lost and found department.

This is where unimaginable creatures roam wild-where humanity is absent, and dreams turn into nightmares. If you are looking for refuge, this is not the place to stop.

Welcome to the Endlands.

12 authors. 17 short stories.

“There is little more primordially frightening to us than the unknown. "The Endlands" is a collection of short stories aimed to frighten and ponder what we all fear the most, what's behind that corner, what is there to antagonize us and what we simply cannot explain. With plenty to ponder and plenty to make it quite hard to put down, "The Endlands" is an excellent read and very highly recommended.”
- Midwest Book Review

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

For more information, please visit Hobbes End Publishing. You can find The Endlands Facebook page here.

Vincent Hobbes was born in Dallas, Texas in 1975. He has been actively writing most of his life. His love, his roots, is horror. His recent releases primarily consist of horror, though he knows no limit in genre. His 2012-2013 releases range from horror, to dystopian, to science-fiction and fantasy. He's been widely reviewed, his fans having compared him to the likes of such greats as Philip K. Dick and Stephen King.
Mr. Hobbes writes with elegant prose, has unique plot-lines and great character development. His work is mind-boggling, his characters life-like, his ideas fresh in a dull market.

You can connect with Vincent Hobbes via his website or Facebook. Hobbes End Publishing can be found at their website, Facebook or Twitter.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Book Feature: Space Orville by Jeff Whelan

Space Orville, a young Earthman of 16, is relishing his new life as an independent "grown-up." He has just been accepted as an apprentice with Morphean Gaming Systems and has moved into an Earth-orbiting apartment with his companion, NeutroFuzz, to test holographic video games. As a result of a questionnaire he answered in the back of a magazine, Space Orville finds himself recruited by the Universal Protection Service to rescue a brilliant inventor who has been kidnapped by a group of diseased refugees seeking a cure for their malady. But these exiled aliens may have more nefarious plans for this inventor's device. Initially perplexed, Space Orville becomes thrilled at being recruited for this dangerous mission. He is therefore bummed to find himself partnered with a warrior dwarf.

Meanwhile, two agents from the OmniCosmic Alliance are in pursuit of a dangerously powerful and deranged scientist, one Bizmo the Inconceivable, who has escaped from prison with a device that can alter reality and enslave every living mind. When these two missions collide, Space Orville must find a way to work with this new team of real "grown-ups" while maintaining a hold on his newfound independence.

Space Orville is not only a rollicking, interstellar adventure loaded with mind-altering concepts and wordplay, but an exploration of how learning to work with others is a large part of learning to be one's self.

"Jeff Whelan serves up vivid description, priceless Lewis Carroll-like dialogue and wordplay, as well as meditations both profound and playful." - Amazon Review

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

For more information, please visit Jeff's IAN page.

Jeff Whelan was born near Chicago and did his growing up in the smallish town of DeKalb, Illinois. Taking time to travel with a carnival in his teens and spending a good part of his 20s living and working in San Francisco, Jeff returned to DeKalb and found himself settling down and starting a family. After 20 happy and fulfilling years in the field of special education, Jeff became a happy and fulfilled stay-at-home parent. Once both children became full-time schoolers, Jeff returned to work by day as a special education paraprofessional and remains, by night, a home-based medical transcriptionist.

You can connect with Jeff by visiting his blog and via Facebook and Twitter.
Also be sure to read the SpecFicPick interview with Jeff Whelan.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Interview: Jeff Whelan

Today I have an interview with Jeff Whelan, author of the science fiction comedy novel Space Orville, which is tomorrow's Book Feature. Jeff was born near Chicago and did his growing up in the smallish town of DeKalb, Illinois. Taking time to travel with a carnival in his teens and spending a good part of his 20s living and working in San Francisco, Jeff returned to DeKalb and found himself settling down and starting a family. After 20 happy and fulfilling years in the field of special education, Jeff became a happy and fulfilled stay-at-home parent. Once both children became full-time schoolers, Jeff returned to work by day as a special education paraprofessional and remains, by night, a home-based medical transcriptionist.

Michael K. Rose: What role do you believe speculative fiction plays in society?

Jeff Whelan: A fascinating question. Consider this: What if the inscriptions and paintings that some claim were evidence of extraterrestrial visitations were not that at all but were, rather, the earliest forms of speculative fiction? Perhaps humans have been writing or drawing about the possibilities of the infinite and the probability of life elsewhere since they first noticed the stars. After all, what is speculation? It is wonder. It is questioning. It is asking "what if?" and "why not?" Ancient mythologies offered explanations about the course of the sun through the heavens and the changing of the seasons. Was that not a form of speculative fiction?

I believe that speculative fiction plays a vital role in advancing the collective imagination of a society or culture. It encourages us to dream beyond the confines of our own experience, to offer up the possibilities of that which seems improbable and make it plausible. And as the ideas expounded by speculative fiction take hold in that collective imagination, the thoughts of a society can move forward to the point where new discoveries are made, new possibilities explored, that were once only dreamed of. Consider Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (1867), H.G. Wells's When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) or Stanislaw Lem's Return from the Stars (1961). While perhaps not the first, these stories contained early, speculative examples of space flight, DVD players and e-books that are now a part of our reality. And what is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but a glorified, intergalactic iPad?

It is speculative fiction that inspires such new ideas, such innovation. Without it, we might still be rubbing sticks together to make fire.

MKR: Why do you write in this genre?

JW: Plainly speaking, it's just a great deal of fun. Granted, my brand of speculative fiction leans toward the humorous and the bizarre, but I get a greater sense of freedom in writing speculatively; if it's set in the future or an alternate reality or another layer of the multiverse, all bets are off. I can create as fantastic a world as I wish with as many outrageously imaginative ideas as I can because it's speculative and that's what it's supposed to be.

MKR: How did you come up with the idea for Space Orville?

JW: I was a senior in high school when Space Orville blossomed in my head. I was part of a creative writing class that would meet weekly to share and critique our poems and short stories. One week, after dinking around with a couple of rather lame poems that were going nowhere, I wrote the words "Space Orville" at the top of a page. Hmm, I thought. I was, at that time, an avid reader of Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S. Thompson. I also carried a passion for Dr. Seuss, Monty Python and Doctor Who. Given all those variables, what flew out of my head at that time came as no surprise. I had a teenage protagonist immersed in bizarre situations beyond his control in a world populated by outrageous beings and somewhat bossy adults. There was hardly a shred of reality to it which made it practically my life story.

Of course, this early draft was barely coherent and was only the seed of what the novel became. Nevertheless, my classmates loved it. Even our advisor was amused, although a bit perplexed.
I could never quite escape Space Orville's world, however, and I would occasionally extend the story inspired by new situations or by conversations with others that led to new ideas. Nearly 18 years later, as part of an adult creative writing course, I decided to dust that original story off and see if I could actually make something of it. A couple of years and some 88,000 words later, my incoherent, adolescent ramblings had grown into a full-blown manuscript.

MKR: What was your biggest challenge in writing it?

JW: Taking those incoherent ramblings and hammering them into a linear story line. This got much easier as the story went on. I wanted to keep as many of those original ideas, concepts and characters as I could but they needed someplace to be, something to do and, most importantly, a reason to do it. Having survived my own adolescence, I felt I had a better handle on Space Orville emotionally as well as a deeper understanding of his motivations. The original story was not much but a collection of twisted circumstances and situations; it lacked an understanding of the characters that populated it. That vital knowledge didn’t come to me until I was an adult. All the playful nonsense in the world wouldn’t help the story if the characters didn't make sense. Once I understood my characters and their motivations, I found I could make more sense of their situations. So, character first, plot second. Once I got there, the story took on a life of its own.

MKR: What are you working on now?

JW: A sequel to Space Orville is beckoning to me, although it is still in the planning phase. The end of the first book left the option to continue and I would like to. The working title is "Methuselah's Cradle" and it concerns the nature of time, how it affects us and what choices we face as time turns around us and turns us around. Love? Devotion? Personal gain? The good of humankind? Revenge? Common themes, to be sure, but wrapped up in Space Orville's universe, I hope to make something entertaining out of it.
Beyond that, some time ago I wrote an autobiographical short story called "Greyhound" about the time I left home and wound up in Miami with $80 in my pocket, no personal contacts and no idea what I was going to do. "Greyhound," posted on my blog, is about the night I left town. Readers of that piece have been clamoring for more and I'm feeling obliged to let them know what happened after that.

MKR: Jeff, thank you so much for this opportunity. Readers, Jeff can be stalked over at his blog and via Facebook and Twitter. Go here for links to purchase Space Orville.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Weekly Preview (July 9-15)

Hello, all! Our first full week was a great success and we have some exciting things coming up this week as well.

On Wednesday, we have a great interview with Jeff Whelan, author of the sci-fi comedy novel Space Orville, which will be our Thursday Book Feature.
The rest of the week's Book Features are Vincent Hobbes's The Endlands on Friday, Girl in the Glass by Zoe Brooks on Saturday and Michael J. Sullivan's Theft of Swords on Sunday.

We hope you'll join us!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Book Feature: Lyon's Legacy: Catalyst Chronicles, Book One by Sandra Ulbrich Almazan

Joanna Lyon is a descendant of famous TwenCen musician Sean Lyon, but she resents how everyone expects her to be a female version of him when she’d rather study science. When a wormhole leading to an alternate TwenCen universe is discovered, Jo’s uncle pressures her into a mission: travel to the other universe and harvest Sean’s genes so he can be cloned. Worrying the clone will be mistreated, Jo secretly vows to sabotage the mission. But when she falls in love with one of the scientists in the Sagan's genetics lab, clashes with other time travelers who fear she'll change how history develops on the alternative TwenCen Earth, and receives devastating personal news, Joanna will find herself pushed to her limit even before she comes face-to-face with her hated ancestor. Their encounter will leave her changed forever. Will she still be able to thwart her uncle's plan, and what will she have to sacrifice to do so?

"Lyon's Legacy is a must-read for anyone who wants a brisk but compelling story that manages to center a family story amidst the wonder of science." - Amazon Review

Available at:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

Sandra Ulbrich Almazan started reading at the age of three and only stops when she must. Her science fiction novella Move Over Ms. L. (an early version of Lyon's Legacy) earned an Honorable Mention in the 2001 UPC Science Fiction Awards, and her short story "A Reptile at the Reunion " was published in the anthology Firestorm of Dragons. Her undergraduate degree is in molecular biology/English, and she has a Master of Technical and Scientific Communication degree. She works in the laboratory of an enzyme company and lives in the Chicago area with her family.

You can visit her blog and connect with her via Facebook and Twitter.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Book Feature: Still Lake by Sara Brooke

It’s always been there, but now something has changed.

Flening has always been a quiet, friendly town. Nestled in the forests of Northwestern Florida, it's home to a small population of familiar faces and the natural beauty of Still Lake.

But now, the town is changing. People are getting sick and some are going crazy. A mysterious illness is sweeping through, destroying families, and threatening to spread farther.

People are changing.

Dr. Craig Lenton is desperately trying to stop the sickness before he and the people he loves become part of the carnage, but time is running out and the calm waters of Still Lake may be hiding something sinister and evil underneath….

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

Click here for more information.

You can visit Sara Brooke at her website or connect with her via Facebook.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Book Feature: Ash: Return Of The Beast
by Gary Val Tenuta

Ash: Return of the Beast is a supernatural crime thriller, a tale of revenge steeped in the occult and inspired by a little known fact about the death of Aleister Crowley (1947), the notorious occultist the British press once called "The Wickedest Man In The World". Crowley's body was cremated but the urn containing his ashes mysteriously disappeared. Its whereabouts has remained a mystery… until now.

A series of curiously interconnected events, beginning with Crowley's death in 1947, leads to the 1990s when a Seattle “death-metal” rocker with the unlikely name of Rodney Duckworth bursts onto the scene. Suddenly, the city's clergymen are mysteriously dropping dead… nine days apart. Is there a connection?

Brian Kane, a street-worn Seattle Police Detective, reluctantly teams up with the enigmatic Rowena Ravenwood, an attractive female FBI agent, to solve the case. But is it really murder? Where's the evidence? What are the strange symbols branded onto the bodies of the victims? And what is the disturbing secret that Detective Kane is holding so close to his chest?

A bloody carnage of unimaginable horror is about to be unleashed upon the world. The survival of the entire human race hangs in the balance and the clues to help solve the case are in desperately short supply. Worse yet, so is the amount of time left to stop the mysterious killer's reign of terror before all Hell breaks loose. And - according to Special Agent Ravenwood - that's not just a figure of speech.

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Click here for more information.

Gary Val Tenuta is an author and book cover designer. His illustrations and articles dealing with the UFO phenomenon and other subjects related to the paranormal and esoteric lore have been published in Fate Magazine in the U.S., Beyond Magazine in the U.K., and other periodicals. He resides in a cozy condo in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. with his big black cat, Bear.

Ash: Return Of The Beast is his second novel, preceded by The Ezekiel Code and his award-winning short story, A Bite Out Of Time, all available at amazon.com.

You can connect with him  by visiting his website and via Facebook or Twitter.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Book Feature: Conner by Miranda Stork

Erin is a young psychologist, with no time for anything but her work, and unable to remember anything about her past. She leads an uneventful life, but a lonely one, in which she secretly wishes for a soulmate.

Conner is an unusual patient who approaches her, thrusting her into a strange world of darkness that runs beneath our own. He believes himself to be a creature of legend-a werewolf. But he also draws Erin with a roguish charm, and an irresisitible feeling that seems to bind them together.

Conner desperately tries to save her from an unknown evil that persues her with a relentless passion that crosses centuries, an evil that once took her very soul away, somewhere in Erin's lost memories.

As she becomes more entwined in a series of events that will remind her of who she really is, will she make it away from the oncoming darkness unscathed?

"You have to read until the very end, you are hooked, sucked in, begging for more." - Amazon Review

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

Miranda Stork was born in Guisborough, North Yorkshire in 1987 and has lived in various places around Britain, including Newcastle and Glasgow.
Her writing is inspired by various writers, including the vivid characters of Charles Dickens, the imagination of Stephen King, and the gothic imagery of Anne Rice.

Her love of horror began at an early age, when she was only three or four. She could read proficiently at the age of three and devoured fairy-stories but always had a bent towards the darker stories, such as the Brothers Grimm's tales. Red Riding Hood was always a firm favourite, although she always felt sorry for the wolf, despite him having tried to eat everyone!

You can connect with her at her blog and via Facebook or Twitter.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Interview: Gary Val Tenuta


I am very pleased to present this interview with Gary Val Tenuta, author of Ash: Return Of The Beast, which will be our Book Feature on Friday.

Gary Val Tenuta is an author and book cover designer. His illustrations and articles dealing with the UFO phenomenon and other subjects related to the paranormal and esoteric lore have been published in Fate Magazine in the U.S., Beyond Magazine in the U.K., and other periodicals. He resides in a cozy condo in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. with his big black cat, Bear.

Ash: Return Of The Beast is his second novel, preceded by The Ezekiel Code and his award-winning short story, A Bite Out Of Time.

SpecFicPick: What role do you believe speculative fiction plays in society?

Gary Val Tenuta: Ah! The sociology of speculative fiction. Honestly, I hadn't given that perspective much thought but it would make an interesting scholarly dissertation. The first thing that comes to mind is the broad spectrum that speculative fiction encompasses. It covers a variety of genres from fantasy to sci-fi, from horror to just plain weird. In every case, however, one common denominator is "escapism". Speculative fiction plays the role of the proverbial rabbit hole into which we can all follow in Alice's footsteps. Where will it take us? What amazing worlds and situations will we find ourselves in? But the role isn't just escapism. It can be, but it can also be more. It can be a mind-opener, an education about aspects of our "real world" that we might not have considered before, or may not have even known about before.

SFP: Why do you write in this genre?

GVT: It's not really by choice. My work just happens to fit into the broad definition of speculative fiction. That is, it doesn't neatly fit into the definitive mold of science fiction or horror or fantasy or any other specific genre yet it often includes various aspects of those specific genres all mixed into a single work. For example, my current novel, Ash: Return Of The Beast, is a combination of mystery, crime fiction, paranormal fiction, supernatural fiction, horror, and could even be said to include what some might call urban fantasy.

SFP: How did you come up with the idea for Ash: Return Of The Beast?

GVT: I was browsing the shelves in a second-hand bookstore and came across a biography of the infamous occultist, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). Due to my life-long fascination with all things paranormal, I was at least somewhat familiar with Crowley. I knew he identified with the number 666 and referred to himself as “The Beast”. I knew he was revered as a master of ritual magic or what some call the Dark Arts. I knew his picture appeared on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album and I knew that several musicians of the hard rock variety were into him. I knew he’d been branded by the British press as ‘The Wickedest Man In The World’ and I knew Musolini had kicked him out of Italy. I even had a copy of a strange little book entitled, Liber Al Vel Legis (The Book Of The Law), that was allegedly dictated to Crowley by a nonhuman entity near the Great Pyramid in 1904.

What I didn’t know was that he was cremated in England and that the urn, containing his ashes, was sent to a man named Karl Germer in New Jersey. Germer buried the urn under a large oak tree on his property. Sometime later, he decided to move to California and he wanted to take the urn with him. But, when he went to dig it up, he found it was no longer there. How it disappeared and where it ended up, has remained a mystery to this day. When I read that, the light bulb went off in my head. I thought, “Man, if that isn’t a set-up for a good paranormal mystery, I don’t know what is.”

SFP: What was your biggest challenge in writing it?

GVT: As I began to sketch out the story I quickly realized it was developing into something much darker than anything I'd done before. Could I dredge up something that disturbing from the depths of my own storehouse of life experiences? Not exactly. Clearly, I needed to do some research and learn how real people have endured such experiences, how it affected them emotionally and psychologically and what effect it had on their lives after the experience. It was pretty disturbing stuff. Like I told my best friend, I felt like I had to go wash my hands or take a complete shower after writing the first incident of one specific heinous activity carried out by one of the characters.

Once I got far enough into the development of the story, the characters ceased to be mere concepts in my head. They began to take shape, physically, emotionally and psychologically. They became real people involved in real situations. That freed me from the discomfort I was feeling from writing some of the content. It wasn’t me who was doing those horrendous things to the characters. The characters were doing those things to each other. At that point, as a writer, I was in the Zone.
Being in the Zone is great. There are no boundaries, no limitations in the Zone. It’s the place where the writer experiences the freedom to let the story evolve as it will and any intimidating sensibilities that might otherwise get in the way... well, they’re just out of luck. The story must go on. And so it did.

SFP: What are you working on now?

GVT: I'm in the early stages of developing another story that, again, will come under the broad definition of speculative fiction. The working title is "Channel". Once again, blending "reality" with the "fantastic", the story involves the phenomenon known as channeling or trance-channeling. You might remember J. Z. Knight, the woman who claimed to be channeling the spirit of a 35,000 year old ascended Spiritual Master. The source of the channelings in my story, however, are extraterrestrials allegedly belonging to an organization known as The Galactic Federation of Light, a phenomenon that has, in fact, been going on in the New Age community for several decades. When a couple of New Agers are murdered, the question becomes (to misquote an old TV commercial for a VHS tape system) "Is it real? Or is it Memorex?" The answer becomes the obsessive quest of a blogger who finds himself caught up in a situation much stranger than he ever expected.

SFP: Thank you, Gary, for this opportunity for a peek inside your mind. Readers, be sure to check out our Book Feature on Friday to read more about Ash: Return Of The Beast. You can also visit Gary's website and connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.